Connecticut's aging population creating big challenges

Published 11:51 pm, Saturday, January 16, 2010

STRATFORD -- It's time to look in the mirror, Connecticut.

But you may not like what you see. Those aging wrinkles are not just skin deep, but symptomatic of a far deeper, more ominous future.

While many baby boomers may never have imagined what would happen when they grew old and how that would change their lives -- and the world -- the impact on government funding and services will be staggering, according to agencies that deal with issues of aging.

And there are few states in America where the elderly population's growth is more striking than in Connecticut, which in less than a decade moved from 15th in state rankings by the U.S. Census Bureau of people 65 years old and over to its current ninth-place standing -- seventh if those 60 and over are counted.

With the 1960s "Make Love, Not War" generation now more tuned in to Viagra than marijuana, and its memories of Woodstock and Vietnam fading, the state is fast approaching a crisis. Where are the money, manpower and services to take care of an elderly population expected to nearly double over the next two decades?

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In towns like Stratford, the crisis has already come. A diverse suburban community east of Bridgeport, the state's largest city, Stratford has one of the highest proportions of elderly in Fairfield County. But it also boasts a number of programs designed to keep seniors out of nursing homes, to provide essential services and to offer tax relief to those who want to remain independent and stay in their homes.

Experts say the Stratford experience may offer useful lessons in how to manage the graying of Connecticut. In particular, they point to the advantage of reducing the number of elderly people in nursing homes and shifting the emphasis to home-based care, which could save as much as $600 million a year in this state alone.

Take Ray Space, a 92-year-old Stratford resident.

"I never thought I would make it to 70, let alone live into my 90s," said Space, who lives by himself at the state-subsidized Lucas Gardens Apartments on Arbor Street. "Now, it's starting to look like I could even make it to 100, and what I want most of all is to remain as independent as I can for as long as I can. My biggest fear is to be shut away in some nursing home."

Space, despite having Parkinson's disease -- which causes his hands and legs to shake and slightly slurs his speech -- and bladder cancer, has lived alone since his wife of 63 years, Annie, died six years ago. He lost his ability to drive about the same time he lost his wife, and relies on volunteers from the town's Baldwin Senior Center to shop for him once a week and on a transportation program offered by the center to take him to frequent doctor appointments.

"I told my doctor sometimes I shake so badly I could use a seat belt for my chair," jokes Space. A Native American of Mohawk descent whose mother died during the 1918 flu epidemic when he was a year old, Space walks slowly around his apartment looking up with a smile and watery eyes at photographs of his late wife and only child, Ray Jr., who was killed in Vietnam.

"This is my home. What time I have left, I want to stay here," Space says adamantly. "I can look up at pictures of my wife and son, read, eat what I want and watch my (big-screen) television, and I'm happy. I've lived a long life, and as long as I have it up here," he says, pointing to a full head of white hair, "I don't want to leave."

The town's programs to help the elderly also make it possible for 79-year-old Marion Rogers to stay in her apartment A retired nurse who has lived at the Raymond Baldwin Apartments on Griffen Street since 2003 when she lost the ability to walk, Rogers has severe arthritis, heart disease and MS, and uses a wheelchair.

"I can manage by having aides that come in daily who help me," she said. "I rely on the (Baldwin Senior Center) van to go to the doctor's, that's very helpful. If it wasn't for the van, I don't know how I would get there. I used to go to the center, play bingo, dance and have lunch. Even though I don't get there as often now, it's good to know it's there when I want to attend a special event."

Both Space and Rogers pay monthly rent of about $250 for their subsidized units, and get by on Social Security of less than $1,000, as well as Medicaid and Medicare.

Staying connected

Those in the aging field say that in an increasingly mobile society, relying on adult children and other relatives is, for the most part, a tradition of a bygone era.

But some in Stratford have managed to do exactly that. Barbara Mullholland, 78, returned to Stratford several years ago after her husband died to live in the lower level of a two-family home, with her daughter's family upstairs. She is relatively healthy and has found a way to enjoy life as best she can.

"If you're alone at my age, it's very difficult to get by, both financially and in terms of just getting around," said Mullholland, while eating lunch with some friends recently at the Baldwin Center. "But I'm fortunate to have my family here in Stratford with an apartment I can live in or I don't know what I would do. I'm still healthy, and love coming to the center for a lot of the activities. It really keeps me going."

Then, there are the "young seniors" like 61-year-old John Cerino, who despite his age, is having a tough time managing by himself in his six-room Colonial on College Street, where he has lived for 28 years. Cerino, whose wife, Andrea, died six years ago, returned home recently from a month-long stay at Bridgeport Hospital after collapsing from an assortment of illnesses. Cerino, who suffers from fluid in the lungs, heart problems and blood clots, also has had six back operations for a herniated disc between 1989-95. Cerino, a former supermarket meat cutter, said health and financial problems are jeopardizing his ability to stay in his home much longer.

"We all used to all laugh at that lady on the television commercial who fell and yelled, `Help, I can't get up!' but it's not funny anymore," said Cerino, who despite his ailments enjoyed a game of poker recently at the Baldwin Center. "It's getting more and more difficult for me to manage. I've thought of selling the house, and I could go into senior housing, but my mother lived in a two-room senior unit and eventually lost her independence. The thought of having to go into a nursing home is very scary. But if you get sick enough, and can't drive or take care of yourself, what are you going to do?"

`It will only get worse'

While you don't have to look far to see more older people living in their own homes and or group housing, experts in the aging field say there is still far too much emphasis on housing older people in nursing homes.

Connecticut lags behind more progressive states, such as Oregon, which leads the nation by spending 85 percent of its long-term Medicaid and Medicare funding on home-care programs to keep older people independent. Connecticut spends 53 percent on those kinds of programs and the rest on nursing home care.

"This is one of the major problems facing our society, and it will only get worse much faster in the coming years if we don't shift our emphasis from spending such a vast amount of money on nursing homes to home health care instead," said Marie L. Allen, executive director of the South Western Connecticut Regional Agency on Aging in Bridgeport, which covers 14 municipalities in Fairfield County.

It costs about $7,000 a month to provide for an individual in long-term nursing care, but only $1,100 per month to cover home-care costs, Allen said.

"Long-term care to pay for people in nursing homes is almost creating a tsunami in our budgets -- taking up about 14 percent of the entire state budget, second only to education," Allen said. "We need to balance Medicare and Medicaid in the state budget, and if given a choice, most older people would rather live as independently as they can for as long as they can. It's good for the person, the spirit ... and the local, state and federal budgets."

Julia Evans-Starr, executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Aging, said her panel has been waging that fight for years and will continue to try to persuade the General Assembly to redistribute more funds for long-term care.

"We're the seventh oldest state in the nation, and people are living to unprecedented longevity that will increasingly require more money to pay for elderly programs," Evans-Starr said. "It's a vital question that our municipalities, state and federal governments have to address. People are living so long we have even coined a new phrase -- super centenarians -- for those over 110."

Evans-Starr said finding ways to provide services for the growing number of older people, while finding funds to pay for new and innovative programs, will become one of society's major priorities in the coming decades.

"We are watching baby boomers age before our eyes, and now the question is right at our door: What are we going to do to address their needs and fierce desire to stay in their own homes? That's what our commission is trying to do. We know there is a need for nursing homes, and that eventually many people have to go into them. But the goal is to help people stay in their homes and communities with help and support in place to provide for their needs."

She said while Connecticut has made considerable progress over the last 20 years in shifting the focus from nursing homes to home care, "We still have a long way to go." She pointed out that when she started with the commission 16 years ago, "We looked at our progress here in Connecticut in how much we spend on home care versus nursing homes -- and realized we were spending so much more on nursing homes we were third to last in the country in that category," she said. "Now, we're about in middle of the pack."

Former Stratford Councilman Robert Blake, 79, who resides with his wife Jean at Oronoque Village, the town's largest senior condominium complex and one of the largest in the state, even managed to gain election to the council as an an independent a decade ago largely on the basis of aging issues. Already a senior himself at the time, Blake had served as president of the Oronoque Village Condominium Association, which represented its 1,500 residents in 929 units.

"We're making progress in Stratford to address these issues, but at the time I was frustrated by the council's lack of interest in doing more for the elderly, so I didn't seek re-election," said Blake, who supported more senior tax relief programs -- something that finally did gain council approval within the past year.

`Shining stars'

Both Allen and Evans-Starr said towns like Stratford are approaching the issues of aging the right way, with strong programs for the elderly that focus on home care and a local Commission on Aging that meets regularly to assess aging issues. The commission, in fact, is currently launching a long-term needs assessment study for more guidance, according to Senior Center Director Diane Puterski.

"What Stratford is doing is very dynamic and shows what direction we need to go in," Evans-Starr said. "Having an active senior center that provides outreach to the community is crucial, and Stratford's programs for the elderly are among the best in the state."

"Stratford is one of the shining stars in Connecticut regarding how the town is making it possible for elderly people to stay in their homes, particularly within the southwestern region," Allen said. "And by the time our mid-life and younger generations get old, they are going to be even more adamant about maintaining their independence. It's a trend that is only going to intensify, but overall people are slow to change their view that old people have to be in a nursing home. We're doing everything we can to change that perception."